Transaction cards, such as credit cards or debit cards, have limited capabilities. Transaction cards may include a magnetic stripe capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of magnetic particles on the stripe. The magnetic stripe may include several tracks of data (typically track 1, track 2, and track 3) storing data about the transaction card owner or data about the account number or expiration date of an associated account.
Transaction cards may also include EuroPay-MasterCard-Visa (“EMV™”) cards having an integrated circuit, or a secure payment chip, which may be an EMV™ chip. The EMV™ chip in an EMV™ card may communicate with EMV™-compliant terminals to conduct secure transactions. For example, information may be exchanged between the card and the terminal via the EMV™ chip, which may also require the entry of a PIN to complete a transaction. The EMV™ chip may dynamically store data previously stored on a magnetic strip, allowing for increased security associated with transaction cards.
However, EMV™ and magnetic stripe cards have limited capabilities, such as limited display capabilities, limited transaction capabilities, and limited processing capabilities, and limited security capabilities. For example, when a smart card is dropped, there is no immediate way to detect that the card has been dropped, and thus no way to alert a user of the dropped card, it is difficult to prevent physical card loss. Such a physical loss of a card may result in fraudulent transactions if the card is obtained and used by another, and also there are card reissuance costs incurred by the credit card companies, financial institutions, and card holders when a card is lost. Preventative methods to reduce the physical loss of smart cards are needed.
These and other drawbacks exist.